Dylan Mann Willet World History The Birth and fall of the Ming Dynasty The Ming Dynasty in China can be compared to the Renaissance in Italy. It was a rebirth of old ideas in China. The Ming dynasty was the last great golden age of the Chinese Empire; it was a time of great culture, building, wealth, and development. Much of the icons of ancient China today were built during this time, this includes the building of the Forbidden City and the construction of the modern Great Wall of China. The rebirth of ideas during the Ming dynasty was, like in Europe, an attempt to regain the glory of the old empire. The Ming dynasty wanted to reclaim the glory of the Han dynasty, before the Mongols conquered China and set up the Yuan dynasty. The movement for the Ming dynasty starts with the events that lead up to the expulsion of the Mongol overlords. The Mongol rulers were very discriminatory against the ethnic Han Chinese. This lead to many laws that suppressed the Han and benefited the Chinese with Mongol ancestry. This suppression of the ethnic Hans caused unrest among the population of China. This unrest turned to open rebellion as many peasants took up arms against the Mongol overlords of the Yuan dynasty. One of these peasant leaders was Zhu Yuanzhang, a poor peasant and a Buddhist monk. Zhu Yuanzhang had the help of the Red Turbans, a group of Chinese rebels that form a sect of the Order of the White Lotus, a Buddhist secret society. With their help he was able to build armies, consolidate power, eliminate rivals, and eventually march an army of the Yuan dynasty palace and shatter the empire. Zhu Yuanzhang changed his name to Hongwu, which means vastly military, and formed the Ming dynasty (The History of China page 192). Hongwu made major reformations in the infrastructure of China during his rule. He tried to build the country on confusionist ideals. His goal was to make China a self-sufficient entity that did not need to relay on parasitic trade for wealth. He made a new code of laws based around Confucianism that was similar to the code of laws in the Tang dynasty. He organized the military according to a new code called weisuo. This military code was similar to the fubing system used during the Tang dynasty and focused on making military soldiers self sufficient by having them work as farmers during inactive war periods. This was a failed attempt that resulted in mass desertion in areas that were not well supplied. Hongwu was a visionary, but by no means was he a perfect ruler. He was paranoid about conspiracy, revolt, and the overall educated class. His paranoia resulted in the death of his chief administrator and the disbandment of the chancellery. He sought to entirely control the government single handedly so that no branch of the government could gain enough power to overthrow him. He relied heavily of the use of eunuchs as administrators because they could not have property, lands, or children (Imperial China 900-1800). Zhu Yunwen, Hongwu’s grandson, became emperor after Hongwu’s death. However his succession to the throne was marked with strife and rebellion. Zhu Yunwen’s uncle Zhu Di rebelled against the empire and tried to overthrow Zhu Yunwen in a three year long civil war. This resulted in the raizing of the palace in Nanjing along with the death of Zhu Yunwen, his wife, mother, and the imperial court. Zhu Di assumed the role as emperor in what is commonly referred to as the second founding of the Ming dynasty (Imperial China, page 580). Zhu Di moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and greatly restored the city. Using hundreds of thousands of worker daily, Zhu Di restored the Grand Canal, which stretched through the heart of the empire, and constructed the Forbidden City as a palace and court. During Zhu Di’s reign he abolished or reversed many of the policies put in place by his father Hongwu. Mostly in the area of scholars who, due to Hongwu’s paranoia, were greatly discriminated against. He commissioned 50 scholars to create a massive encyclopedia of all of China’s knowledge called the Yongle Encyclopedia. He built a massive fleet with giant treasure ships to travel the globe and collect tribute and foreign items and animals and bring them back to China. Zhu Di also sent many invasions into surrounding areas such as Vietnam, Korea, and Mongolia. However, almost all of these invasions were repelled at great cost to China. The cost of these invasions and with the cost of building the modern Great Wall of China greatly depleted China’s treasury. Multiple rebellions and wars of succession followed the rule of Zhu Di along with the gradual decline of the Ming dynasty. As each Emperor was forced to sieze power from rebels and usurpers, the Empire was gradually weakened. The great sea trade of the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di, fell from neglect as new emperors continuously attempted to make China more isolated. The ultimate end of the Ming dynasty came when the tribes of Manchuria were united and conquered Korea with a vast army of 100,000 troops. After the Ming Dynasty’s greatest ally fell, the mainland of China was open to attack. Greatly weakened from years of inflation and economic hardship, the Manchurians were able to topple the great Ming dynasty and start one of their own, the Qing Dynasty. It was during this new dynasty that China as an empire finally comes to an end (Cambridge History of China pg 16).
Qing Dynasty
The Quing Dynasty was a peaceful era which was ruled by the Manchu. During this era Chinese culture and population were strengthened. The Qing instituted changes in the dress of the Chinese. They required the Chinese men to shave their heads and wear queues. They also required them to wear Manchu clothes rather than the clothing style of the Ming Dynasty. The Qing did not require the Chinese women to change their dress, yet they did forbid them to bind their feet. This proved impossible to enforce and in 1668 A.D. the ruling was withdrawn. A custom the Qing did not attempt to change, was the preference for agriculture over trade. The Qing favored an isolationist policy, which proved fatal. The lack of trade hurt China economically. The impact of the west was also felt for the first time in China. Great Britain especially was interested in trading with China for silk and tea. However, the British did not have anything that was easy to import to China until they began importing opium. This was devastating to China. Many became addicted to opium, and land that had previously been used for food began to be used to produce opium. Also, a large amount of Chinese money left the country in payment for the opium. Finally, in 1839 A.D. the opium trade was abolished. This set off a war with Great Britain that came to be known as the Opium Wars, and in 1842 A.D., China was forced to sign a treaty in which Great Britain received Hong Kong, and ports were opened to European trade. The terms of this treaty were not fully carried out by either side, and in 1857 A.D., fighting again broke out. The British again won and the Chinese were forced to grant more privileges to the British, that virtually turned China into a British colony. Internal rebellions further weakened China. The T'ai P'ing rebellion is one of the most famous. Its leader also instituted religious changes among his followers. He mixed elements of Christianity and traditional Chinese religion, along with ideas of his own. He believed in communal property, and the equality of men and women among other things. Other uprisings which greatly affected China were known as the Mohammedan risings, which were more separate events than uprisings connected to each other. The problems caused by internal rebellion were further intensified by Japan's Westernization and goal of conquering the surrounding countries to provide both a buffer against attacks against Japan itself and to provide trading networks. Russia too began to come into contact with China and treaties were signed which defined the China/Russia border and allowed for types of trade. While these struggles were occurring, the emperors became younger and younger, so that they had no control and power was in the hands of empresses and other advisors. The empress who held the most power was Tzu Hsi. She was uneducated and opposed to any type of reform or modernization that might have helped China economically and politically. Reformers who felt that China had to change were executed, despite the validity of their arguments that people whom they had previously regarded as inferior and barbarians were easily defeating China. Tzu Hsi had the former emperor executed, and the next day, she too died. However, before her death she placed a two year old on the throne. This further weakened the government and strengthened the revolutionaries. His reign lasted from 1909-1911 A.D., at which point the revolutionaries won and the Republic of China arose.
The History of China, By Britannica Educational Publishing, page 192
Chad
Philomena. "The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911): Painting | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Metmuseum.org. 2000. Web. 07 Mar. 2011. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/qing_1/hd_qing_1.htm>.
The Ming Dynasty
Dylan Mann
Willet
World History
The Birth and fall of the Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty in China can be compared to the Renaissance in Italy. It was a rebirth of old ideas in China. The Ming dynasty was the last great golden age of the Chinese Empire; it was a time of great culture, building, wealth, and development. Much of the icons of ancient China today were built during this time, this includes the building of the Forbidden City and the construction of the modern Great Wall of China. The rebirth of ideas during the Ming dynasty was, like in Europe, an attempt to regain the glory of the old empire. The Ming dynasty wanted to reclaim the glory of the Han dynasty, before the Mongols conquered China and set up the Yuan dynasty. The movement for the Ming dynasty starts with the events that lead up to the expulsion of the Mongol overlords.
The Mongol rulers were very discriminatory against the ethnic Han Chinese. This lead to many laws that suppressed the Han and benefited the Chinese with Mongol ancestry. This suppression of the ethnic Hans caused unrest among the population of China. This unrest turned to open rebellion as many peasants took up arms against the Mongol overlords of the Yuan dynasty. One of these peasant leaders was Zhu Yuanzhang, a poor peasant and a Buddhist monk. Zhu Yuanzhang had the help of the Red Turbans, a group of Chinese rebels that form a sect of the Order of the White Lotus, a Buddhist secret society. With their help he was able to build armies, consolidate power, eliminate rivals, and eventually march an army of the Yuan dynasty palace and shatter the empire. Zhu Yuanzhang changed his name to Hongwu, which means vastly military, and formed the Ming dynasty (The History of China page 192).
Hongwu made major reformations in the infrastructure of China during his rule. He tried to build the country on confusionist ideals. His goal was to make China a self-sufficient entity that did not need to relay on parasitic trade for wealth. He made a new code of laws based around Confucianism that was similar to the code of laws in the Tang dynasty. He organized the military according to a new code called weisuo. This military code was similar to the fubing system used during the Tang dynasty and focused on making military soldiers self sufficient by having them work as farmers during inactive war periods. This was a failed attempt that resulted in mass desertion in areas that were not well supplied. Hongwu was a visionary, but by no means was he a perfect ruler. He was paranoid about conspiracy, revolt, and the overall educated class. His paranoia resulted in the death of his chief administrator and the disbandment of the chancellery. He sought to entirely control the government single handedly so that no branch of the government could gain enough power to overthrow him. He relied heavily of the use of eunuchs as administrators because they could not have property, lands, or children (Imperial China 900-1800).
Zhu Yunwen, Hongwu’s grandson, became emperor after Hongwu’s death. However his succession to the throne was marked with strife and rebellion. Zhu Yunwen’s uncle Zhu Di rebelled against the empire and tried to overthrow Zhu Yunwen in a three year long civil war. This resulted in the raizing of the palace in Nanjing along with the death of Zhu Yunwen, his wife, mother, and the imperial court. Zhu Di assumed the role as emperor in what is commonly referred to as the second founding of the Ming dynasty (Imperial China, page 580). Zhu Di moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and greatly restored the city. Using hundreds of thousands of worker daily, Zhu Di restored the Grand Canal, which stretched through the heart of the empire, and constructed the Forbidden City as a palace and court. During Zhu Di’s reign he abolished or reversed many of the policies put in place by his father Hongwu. Mostly in the area of scholars who, due to Hongwu’s paranoia, were greatly discriminated against. He commissioned 50 scholars to create a massive encyclopedia of all of China’s knowledge called the Yongle Encyclopedia. He built a massive fleet with giant treasure ships to travel the globe and collect tribute and foreign items and animals and bring them back to China. Zhu Di also sent many invasions into surrounding areas such as Vietnam, Korea, and Mongolia. However, almost all of these invasions were repelled at great cost to China. The cost of these invasions and with the cost of building the modern Great Wall of China greatly depleted China’s treasury.
Multiple rebellions and wars of succession followed the rule of Zhu Di along with the gradual decline of the Ming dynasty. As each Emperor was forced to sieze power from rebels and usurpers, the Empire was gradually weakened. The great sea trade of the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di, fell from neglect as new emperors continuously attempted to make China more isolated. The ultimate end of the Ming dynasty came when the tribes of Manchuria were united and conquered Korea with a vast army of 100,000 troops. After the Ming Dynasty’s greatest ally fell, the mainland of China was open to attack. Greatly weakened from years of inflation and economic hardship, the Manchurians were able to topple the great Ming dynasty and start one of their own, the Qing Dynasty. It was during this new dynasty that China as an empire finally comes to an end (Cambridge History of China pg 16).
Qing Dynasty
The Quing Dynasty was a peaceful era which was ruled by the Manchu. During this era Chinese culture and population were strengthened.The Qing instituted changes in the dress of the Chinese. They required the Chinese men to shave their heads and wear queues. They also required them to wear Manchu clothes rather than the clothing style of the Ming Dynasty. The Qing did not require the Chinese women to change their dress, yet they did forbid them to bind their feet. This proved impossible to enforce and in 1668 A.D. the ruling was withdrawn. A custom the Qing did not attempt to change, was the preference for agriculture over trade. The Qing favored an isolationist policy, which proved fatal. The lack of trade hurt China economically.
The impact of the west was also felt for the first time in China. Great Britain especially was interested in trading with China for silk and tea. However, the British did not have anything that was easy to import to China until they began importing opium. This was devastating to China. Many became addicted to opium, and land that had previously been used for food began to be used to produce opium. Also, a large amount of Chinese money left the country in payment for the opium. Finally, in 1839 A.D. the opium trade was abolished. This set off a war with Great Britain that came to be known as the Opium Wars, and in 1842 A.D., China was forced to sign a treaty in which Great Britain received Hong Kong, and ports were opened to European trade. The terms of this treaty were not fully carried out by either side, and in 1857 A.D., fighting again broke out. The British again won and the Chinese were forced to grant more privileges to the British, that virtually turned China into a British colony.
Internal rebellions further weakened China. The T'ai P'ing rebellion is one of the most famous. Its leader also instituted religious changes among his followers. He mixed elements of Christianity and traditional Chinese religion, along with ideas of his own. He believed in communal property, and the equality of men and women among other things. Other uprisings which greatly affected China were known as the Mohammedan risings, which were more separate events than uprisings connected to each other. The problems caused by internal rebellion were further intensified by Japan's Westernization and goal of conquering the surrounding countries to provide both a buffer against attacks against Japan itself and to provide trading networks. Russia too began to come into contact with China and treaties were signed which defined the China/Russia border and allowed for types of trade.
While these struggles were occurring, the emperors became younger and younger, so that they had no control and power was in the hands of empresses and other advisors. The empress who held the most power was Tzu Hsi. She was uneducated and opposed to any type of reform or modernization that might have helped China economically and politically. Reformers who felt that China had to change were executed, despite the validity of their arguments that people whom they had previously regarded as inferior and barbarians were easily defeating China. Tzu Hsi had the former emperor executed, and the next day, she too died. However, before her death she placed a two year old on the throne. This further weakened the government and strengthened the revolutionaries. His reign lasted from 1909-1911 A.D., at which point the revolutionaries won and the Republic of China arose.
Mariani,
Work Cited:
Dylan
· "Ming Dynasty." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 07 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Dynasty>
· "Ming." Web. 07 Mar. 2011. <http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/china/later_imperial_china/ming.html>.
·"History of the Ming Dynasty." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 07 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Ming_Dynasty>
- Ming Dynasty. Photograph. The Ming Empire. Web. 7 Mar. 2011. <http://img.search.com/thumb/1/12/Ming-Empire2.jpg/250px-Ming-Empire2.jpg>
- Forbidden City. Photograph. History of China. Web. 7 Mar. 2011. <http://viartis.net/parkinsons.disease/images/MingDynasty2.jpg>
- The Cambridge history of China: The Ch'ing Empire to 1800, Volume 9, page 16, By Willard J. Peterson
- Imperial China 900-1800 by Frederick W. Mote (Nov 15, 2003)
- The History of China, By Britannica Educational Publishing, page 192
ChadPhilomena. "The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911): Painting | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: Metmuseum.org. 2000. Web. 07 Mar. 2011. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/qing_1/hd_qing_1.htm>.